A troubled college group has appointed a seasoned troubleshooter as its interim principal.

Cornwall College Group lost its former head Raoul Humphreys earlier this month, when he stepped with immediate effect in an attempt to “expedite” a government bailout for the financially strained college.

Dr Elaine McMahon will now take over as interim principal and chief executive, having spent years working to alleviate the problems faced by various FE providers. 

Dr McMahon became interim principal at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College in January 2014, at a time when auditors discovered an “unexpected deficit” of £4.1 million in the college’s accounts.

She then joined City College Coventry shortly after it received its second ‘inadequate’ rating by Ofsted in November 2015, and helped to improve it to a grade three by February last year.

And she became principal of Kensington and Chelsea College following the unexpected resignation of Mark Brickley and his controversial selling of the Wornington Road campus to make way for housing.

Ian Tunbridge, chair of the board at Cornwall College, said he was “delighted” to announce Dr McMahon’s appointment.

“Elaine has more than 30 years’ experience in further and higher education in the UK and the USA,” he said. “We are confident that Elaine will continue the hard work taking place in ensuring the positive future for the group and the learners and communities it serves.”

Mr Humphreys had worked at Cornwall College for 24 years, and took over as principal and chief executive in April 2017. He took the top job following the resignation of former principal Amarjit Basi in July 2016, who received a pay out of over £200,000 when he left his post despite the college being plagued by financial warnings from the government.

Cornwall College Group received £4.5 million emergency funding in 2016/17 and £3.5 million in 2017/18. It is still waiting to hear if it has been successful in applying for a restructuring grant, rumoured to be in the region of over £30 million.

The group is currently participating in a “confidential” review of Cornwall’s post 16-education alongside Truro and Penwith College and Cornwall Council.

A scandal involving one of the country’s biggest apprenticeship providers has engrossed the sector ever since the turn of this academic year – but details on exactly what caused it have been few and far between.

FE Week can now reveal just why Aspire Achieve Advance, better known as 3aaa, which had around 4,500 learners and 500 staff before it went bust last month, is being investigated by the government and the police.

Alleged manipulation of Individualised Learner Records, to artificially inflate achievement rates by a huge amount, as well as the misuse of employer incentive grants are at the heart of the investigations.

Inflated achievement rates

FE Week understands that Lee Marples (pictured above right), 3aaa’s commercial director and nephew to owner Peter Marples, is central to this part of the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s probe.

Evidence from a whistleblower shows how achievement rates were inflated by more than 20 percentage points.

FE Week understands Lee Marples, who boasted on 3aaa’s website to have “always had a thing for numbers”, would personally change ILR data late at night and at times from a remote login.

3aaa used a well-known commercial ILR “learning management system” for apprenticeships called Maytas, and this newspaper has seen data extracts showing hundreds of changes were made using a Lee Marples login.

FE Week has also had sight of internal 3aaa emails from Lee Marples which suggest the purpose of changing data was to inflate achievement rates.

In addition to ILR manipulation, 3aaa sales documents show a potential £700,000 ESFA clawback. It is understood that this relates to a range of apprenticeship and traineeship funding overclaims made via ILR submissions.

As revealed by FE Week in June, Ofsted almost gave the provider another ‘outstanding’ rating before pausing the inspection once inspectors heard the ESFA had an active investigation.

A spokesperson for the education watchdog told FE Week this week it is continuing to look into the provider.

“We are currently considering options for completing our inspection,” he said.

Lee Marples’ biography on the 3aaa website bragged about his “understanding of the funding mechanisms, rules and regulations”.

Lee Marples did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Kept £1.2m employer incentive payments

On the other side of the investigations is the alleged misuse of grants from an apprenticeship incentive scheme in which 3aaa held on to £1.2 million that was supposed to go to employers.

The programme, known as the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE), was run by the government from 2014 to July 2017 as a way of incentivising employers to take on 16- to 24-year-olds whom they would not otherwise be in a position to recruit.

Derbyshire Constabulary is aware of the allegations and has received an Action Fraud referral in relation to 3aaa

Eligible employers – those with fewer than 50 staff – qualified to receive £1,500 once an apprentice completed 13 weeks “in-learning” on their programme.

The skills funding agency would transfer the funds “to your training organisation once the 13-week qualification point has been met and correctly recorded on the Individualised Learner Record as submitted by the training organisation,” according to AGE guidance.

“Your training organisation must make arrangements to pay the funds to you within 30 days of receipt,” it added.

However, a 3aaa sales document that was being shown to potential buyers in October, and has been obtained by FE Week, reveals that the provider held on to £1.2 million for over a year after the scheme ended. The ESFA has investigated and now wants the money back.

“The outlook is impacted by potential ESFA clawbacks and deal fees ~£2.4 million (this is management’s view of the maximum including Age Grant £1.2 million, fees £0.5 million settlement £0.7 million),” the document said.

The £1.2 million for AGE and £700,000 clawback was listed in 3aaa’s cash-flow forecast for October (see image below right).

It meant that anyone who bought the provider, majority owned by co-founders Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson (pictured above left and middle respectively), would have to pay the amount back to the ESFA.

Derbyshire Constabulary is leading on the inquiry for Action Fraud, and confirmed it was investigating the allegation of the misuse of the employer incentive.

“Derbyshire Constabulary is aware of the allegations and has received an Action Fraud referral in relation to 3aaa and enquiries are ongoing,” a spokesperson said.

He added that a “criminal investigation has not begun as the Department for Education has not yet completed its work at 3aaa” and the police would “not comment on the specifics of enquiries – or be giving a running commentary on the state of the case”.

The DfE could not comment directly on the allegation as its investigation is still live, but offered this statement: “We have terminated our contracts with 3aaa. Our priority now is to find new training providers as quickly as possible for the affected learners.

“Following our investigation we have referred our findings to the police, through Action Fraud.

“We will look very carefully at what lessons can be learned as a result of this investigation.”

A spokesperson for the Official Receiver said: “The Official Receiver has a duty to investigate the cause of failure of the company and the conduct of all individuals involved in its management.

“If any misconduct is identified then the Official Receiver can refer matters to the relevant prosecuting authority, while also having the option of applying for a disqualification order for a period between two and 15 years.”

Mr Marples and Ms McEvoy-Robinson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

How 3aaa splashed the cash

Elton John concert and sports club sponsorship

As previously revealed by FE Week, 3aaa spent £1.6 million on sponsorship at sports clubs, of which£480,420 was with the Derbyshire Country Cricket club to include naming rights for the ground.

Confidential documents seen by FE Week also show 3aaa spent £69,000 for corporate hospitality at the 3aaa County Ground for an Elton John concert on June 4, 2017.

It is understood that in addition to the music show that evening, the cost included a “delicious three-course dinner and private bar”.

Flashy Tesla cars for 3aaa’s owners

Hire purchase agreements within the 3aaa sales documents show the company was paying monthly for 33 cars up until at least July 2018.

Two Model S Tesla’s in particular stand out, costing £3,600 per month at a total cost for the two cars by January 2020 of £288,000.

One of the Tesla’s was in the name of Patrick McEvoy, Di McEvoy-Robinson’s husband, and the other was in the name of Peter Marples.

Director loans and the mansions

3aaa received nearly all of its income from the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Its most recent accounts show that the company recorded a £2.5 million post-tax loss in the 18 months to January 2018.

Despite this, the same accounts show that its owners, Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson, had huge directors loans. As at January 31, 2018, Mr Marples had £2,745,859 outstanding. FE Week has seen documents that he then took a further director’s loan of £102,000 between February and July 2018.

MsMcEvoy Robinson had £1,280,509 outstanding at January 31, 2018, and again, took out a further £102,000 director’s loan between February and July 2018. At the end of 2015, both owners purchased multi-million pound properties.

Land registry documents show Ms McEvoy-Robinson purchased Horsley Hall in Derbyshire for £3 million (below), in December 2015.

Land registry documents show that Mr Marples purchased a house in Burton-on-Trent for £1,795,000 (below) in November 2015. It is understood the house was demolished, and FE Week has seen plans for an ultra- modern new build with out-door swimming pool, but it is believed this was never built.

Mr Marples also owned Morley Manor in Derbyshire (below). The mansion was put on the market for £1.6 million several weeks ago and it is unclear whether it has now been sold.

Mr Marples also owns a 9 bedroom mansion in Florida, which he rents (below). The rental site boasts it is the “largest property in Orlando”. It has been on the market for over a year and the current price tag is $2.75 million.

The 3aaa saga

The ESFA’s investigation was sparked earlier this year when a whistleblower approached the agency.

Owing to this, Ofsted declared its latest inspection of the provider, which was expected to result in another ‘outstanding’ rating, as incomplete in June.

It was in September when events really began to heat up. 3aaa’s co-owners Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson, who founded the provider together in 2008, resigned from the company claiming that they wanted to “take the opportunity to focus on our health and families”.

The training provider saw significant growth under their leadership. Direct ESFA funding to 3aaa increased from just £390,000 in 2012/13 to £3.6 million the following year. It rose again to £12.5 million in 2014/15 and to £21.7 million a year later.

Its total allocation, which was mostly for 16-to-18 apprenticeships in industries including IT, business administration and accountancy, stood at nearly £31 million by the end of 2017/18.

The provider was suspended from recruiting apprentices following its owners’ resignations, but FE Week revealed that senior employees were later “instructed” to tell its staff to not date any paperwork for “planned enrolments”.

This newspaper then uncovered a highly confidential previous government investigation report, code named ‘Project Vanilla’, into 3aaa which revealed it was given a £7 million contract increase in 2016 despite being found to have carried out dozens of funding and success rate “overclaims”.

Despite attempting to convince its employers and staff that the company was moving forward under “new management”, the provider put itself up for a quick sale in early October but later went bust when the ESFA terminated its skills contracts as a result of the findings of this year’s investigation.

Around 4,500 learners had to find new training providers and up to 500 jobs were lost.

The ESFA’s findings were then passed on to the police, through Action Fraud, and 3aaa has been placed into compulsory liquidation. Anthony Hannon is the Official Receiver handling the insolvency.

Only a tiny proportion of large employers’ apprenticeship cash was passed on to smaller employers in the first three months of the transfer scheme, the skills minister has revealed.

Since May this year levy-paying employers have been able to transfer up to 10 per cent of their funds to smaller employers in their supply chains.

Take-up was understood to have been low, and this has now been confirmed by Anne Milton.

In the three months from May to July “less than 1 per cent of levy funds in employer apprenticeship service accounts were used to fund apprenticeships in this way for non-levy paying employers,” she said in response to a parliamentary question.

Despite multiple enquiries, FE Week has only been able to find a handful of employers that have passed their levy funds along in this way

Last month the chancellor Philip Hammond announced an increase in the amount of cash that employers will be able to pass on from April 2019, up to 25 per cent.

Ms Milton said at the time that she hoped this would boost take-up “because then it’s a substantial proportion”.

Speaking to FE Week at the Conservative party conference in October, she admitted that “possibly yes” the 10 per cent wasn’t being passed on because it was “too small to make it worthwhile”.

“By January, I’d like to see some real progress. My challenge to employers is to go and transfer it,” she said.

“Employers say they really want to be able to help their supply chains. There are lots of enlightened ways you could use that transfer to grow apprenticeships – that’s what we want to see.”

A spokesperson for Health Education England, which supports apprenticeships in the NHS, said it was “providing support for employers seeking to transfer out and receive levy”.

“This includes transfers between trusts and primary-care employers such as GP practices, pharmacies and dental practices.”

However, she was unable to name any of the trusts involved.

Last month HEE wrote to all NHS trusts encouraging them to use or transfer their levy funds, after finding their annual £200 million pot was not being spent fast enough.

Mike Cherry, the Federation of Small Businesses’ national chairman, said the government should be “looking at solutions to encourage larger levy-paying firms to transfer their unspent funds” such as a matching service “where levy-paying businesses can locate smaller businesses to receive funding”.

Plans to allow levy payers to transfer funds to smaller employers in their supply chain, to support them to recruit apprentices, were first announced in October 2016.

When the policy first came into effect employers were limited to passing cash on to a single employer, although this restriction was subsequently lifted.

Following Mr Hammond’s announcement in October, a number of large employers, including Specsavers and the Co-op, voiced concerns that the increase to the transfer facility would have “little impact”.

“We are continuing to work with employers to build awareness on how businesses can use their apprenticeship-levy fund,” a Department for Education spokesperson said.

This included supporting them “to make sure they make best use of the levy transfer and their own levy funds”, she said.

FE Week reported last week that employers had used just 14 per cent of their apprenticeship levy funds in the 18 months since the charge was brought in.

Just £370 million of the £2.7 billion total balance of employers’ apprenticeship service accounts had been spent as of the end of September, a freedom of information request revealed.

Concern over thousands of apprentices without a regulator responsible for checking the quality of their training is being reviewed by the National Audit Office.

FE Week revealed last week that providers who deliver level 6 and 7 apprenticeships that have no prescribed HE qualification, such as a degree, and are not on the Office for Students’ “register”, go without any regulation.

The Department for Education has now confirmed the grey area exists and has committed to fixing it by expanding the OfS’ remit.

However, a solution might not be found for some time as the HE regulator will not decide how to assess providers not on its register until the huge task of signing off on current applications to its register is completed, which is likely to run into late 2019.

The NAO, led by comptroller and auditor general Sir Amyas Morse (pictured), has now weighed into the debacle and has promised to review the arrangements for oversight in its upcoming follow-up review of apprenticeships, due to be published in “early 2019”.

“We are aware of the concerns raised on the regulation of Level 6 and 7 apprenticeships,” said a spokesperson.

“As part of our study on the apprenticeships programme, we will review the arrangements for oversight, inspection and regulation of training provision at all levels of apprenticeship.”

The NAO’s review will focus on whether the apprenticeship reform programme is delivering value for money.

It comes after its 2016 report warned that without more robust risk planning the reforms risked seeing repeats of the frauds that plagued failed Individual Learning Accounts.

The failure of this scheme – which was scrapped in 2001 after abuse by unscrupulous providers led to a reported £67 million fraud – was blamed on poor planning and risk management by the government.

The NAO has raised concerns that lessons had not been learned – as it warned the DfE had not done enough to identify how providers, employers and assessment bodies might react to the apprenticeship reforms, raising the risk of “market abuse”.

The previous NAO report has a section on apprenticeship oversight, but does not mention regulation for level 6 and 7 degree or non-degree programmes.

FE Week analysis shows there are 15 approved standards at higher levels with no degree element, which have had a combined total of 4,443 starts on them since 2016/17.

One of the standards, the level 7 accountancy and taxation professional, had over 3,500 starts in 2017/18 alone.

Any HE provider that is delivering these standards is still subject to OfS regulation if they are on its register, so some of the starts in question would have been assessed.

The issue of no oversight lies with providers, such as Kent County Council, which deliver the high-level apprenticeships but are not on the OfS register and therefore not subject to their regulation.

FE has faced a difficult week in Ofsted inspections as three providers were hit with ‘inadequate’ ratings.

Three others were graded as ‘requires improvement’ in a week which saw 15 inspection reports published for FE and skills providers.

Norfolk’s Easton and Otley College was hit with its second grade four rating in a row in a report published on November 12, which raised concerns about poor quality study programmes and adult education courses and low completion rates on both.  

More than a quarter of students on study programmes and adult learning programmes, which together make up a large majority of the college’s provision, do not achieve their qualifications,” the report said.

Two independent learning providers also received ‘inadequate’ grades this week. Inspectors found that the 500 learners at the Harrow-based Academy Training Group had received “no teaching” and some were “not aware” they had taken out an advanced learner loan.

The provider was said to have “no strengths” and accused of not using its funding “appropriately”, but Academy Training Group’s operations director Paul Marsh said the judgement was being challenged and that Ofsted “lacks understanding of the environment we work under”.

Also ‘inadequate’ was Manchester’s Impact College, where learners were found to copy and paste their assignments and had been given high grades even where awarding organisations identified malpractice.

A damning monitoring visit has also caused a headache for the government this week, after Premier People Solutions – an apprenticeship provider which trains civil servants in government departments including the Home Office and HMRC – was rated ‘insufficient’ across the board.

“Leaders and managers cannot be sure that their members of staff are safe to work in the sensitive environments of the employers for whom their apprentice work,” the report said.

David Pearson, managing director at Premier, insisted the provider takes safeguarding “extremely seriously” but the Education and Skills Funding Agency has now terminated its levy contract.

West Kent and Ashford College, Focus Training and Expanse Group all received grade three ratings from Ofsted this week.

Independent specialist college Expanse Group was criticised for its ‘inadequate’ apprenticeship provision, including “weak” management and insufficient time for off-the-job training.

However, inspectors said its provision for learners with high needs was “good” and staff had created an “inclusive culture of mutual respect in which learners feel safe”.

Bolton’s Focus Training was criticised for having too many learners leave their course early and too few achieve their qualifications.

Focus Training’s courses consist of distance learning via an online learning platform and planned telephone support tuition sessions. However, inspectors said leaders had not “been swift enough to improve the quality of the telephone support tutorials” and said tutors “do not provide effective telephone support”.

But inspectors commended the “very high-quality teaching resources” and “good quality face-to-face training sessions” and said learners who remain on their course enjoy their learning.

Ofsted warned that too many learners at grade three West Kent and Ashford College do not achieve qualifications or make the progress of expected them, and said too few assessors plan apprentices’ on- and off-the-job training in consultation with employers.

But it commended leaders for having “changed the culture of the college” and improving teaching, behaviour and the effectiveness of management, as well as re-establishing “positive relationships with external stakeholders”.

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom this week. Havering Sixth Form College improved from a grade three to a grade two, while Ada National College for Digital Skills became the first national college to receive an Ofsted inspection and obtained a ‘good’ rating.

Leaders at Havering Sixth Form College were described as “ambitious” and commended for establishing a “strong culture of improvement at the college”. A large number of learners make good progress, and leaders “established excellent partnerships with the local community”.

And Ada was highly praised for effective teaching, “enthusiastic” learners, “excellent” careers advice and focus on increasing diversity within the digital sector.

Inspectors praised senior leaders for being “relentless in their ambitions to establish the National College for Digital Skills as a sector leader in its field”.

Cambridge employer provider Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace also enjoyed a positive week, after being rated as making ‘significant progress’ in every category in an early monitoring visit report.

Leaders were commended having “invested well in staff and training resources” and ensuring they celebrate the success of apprentices, who were described as developing “very high level new skills, knowledge and behaviours”.

CMS Vocational Training, N-Gaged Training and Recruitment, Manufacturing Excellence, First Intuition Chelmsford and FLM Training were all found to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in monitoring visits.

GFE Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Easton and Otley College	02/10/2018	12/11/2018	4	4
Ada National College for Digital Skills	09/10/2018	15/11/2018	2	N/A
West Kent and Ashford College	02/10/2018	15/11/2018	3	3

 

Sixth Form Colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Havering Sixth Form College	09/10/2018	15/11/2018	2	3

 

Independent specialist colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Expanse Group Ltd	24/09/2018	13/11/2018	3	3

 

Employer providers	Inspected	Published	Grade
Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace Ltd	04/10/2018	15/11/2018	M

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
CMS Vocational Training Ltd	17/10/2018	16/11/2018	M
Academy Training Group Limited	02/10/2018	13/11/2018	4	N/A
Impact College	09/10/2018	14/11/2018	4	3
Focus Training Limited	09/10/2018	16/11/2018	3	3
N-Gaged Training & Recruitment	22/10/2018	01/08/2018	M
Manufacturing Excellence Limited	08/10/2018	12/11/2018	M
Premier People Solutions	22/10/2018	15/11/2018	M
First Intuition Chelmsford Limited	16/10/2018	16/11/2018	M
FLM Training Ltd	11/10/2018	16/11/2018	M

An exodus of college leaders has rocked the FE sector over the past two months. Meanwhile, regulations that will allow colleges to go bust for the first time will come into effect in just two and a half months’ time. FE Week asks: is there a connection?

Garry Phillips’ resignation from City College Plymouth on Tuesday follows that of other high-profile leaders, including Dame Asha Khemka, former principal of West Nottinghamshire College, and Joe Docherty, ex-boss of college mega-group NCG.

In total eight leaders of some of the nation’s biggest colleges have stepped aside in the space of 50 days.

Between them the eight colleges had a combined income of £439 million in 2016/17, according to Education and Skills Funding Agency figures.

That gives an average income of £59 million – more than twice the sector average of £22.2 million – with average learner and staff numbers also above average at 16,000 and 950 respectively.

The spate of departures comes ahead of the introduction of new rules that will mean colleges will be allowed to go bust for the first time.

These had been set to take effect this year, but a spokesperson for the Department for Education has now confirmed that “due to parliamentary scheduling, the new insolvency regime will now come into force on 31 January 2019”.

Half of the leaders to have left were in charge of colleges in active intervention for financial health while warning signs suggested the remaining four may have been heading that way – indicating that their departures are part of a crackdown on poor leadership ahead of the regime’s introduction.

Speaking in parliament last month, the skills minister Anne Milton stressed the importance of “outstanding leadership” to the “financial resilience of the FE sector”.

“We want every college to have great leaders, both principals and governing bodies,” she said during a debate in support of the draft further-education bodies (insolvency) regulations 2018 – part of the insolvency regime – on October 31.

“Leaders that manage their colleges effectively will be key to preventing financial distress,” Ms Milton said.

The DfE has previously made it clear that once the insolvency regime comes into effect, the exceptional financial-support tap will be switched off.

This is cash, available as a grant or loan, for colleges that are “encountering financial, or cashflow, difficulties that put the continuation of provision at risk”.

Another form of financial support for struggling colleges, the restructuring facility, closed for applications last month.

This was originally intended to fund changes resulting from the area reviews of post-16 education and training, which ended in March 2017, but has been increasingly used to prop up failing colleges – although both the DfE and Ms Milton have repeatedly denied this.

Hull College reportedly received an eye-watering £54 million earlier this year, after reporting a deficit of close to £13 million in one year.

And Lambeth College is dependent on the £29 million it requested from the facility to keep it afloat until its merger with London South Bank University goes ahead.

In an expert piece in this week’s paper, Julian Gravatt, the Association of Colleges’ deputy chief executive, said the “restructuring deals have mainly been used to pay down debt and to replace bank loans with ones from government”.

“This is about clearing up messes. Big ones,” he said.

“People in top jobs in every sort of organisation make mistakes. In the college-restructuring cases, it’s the successors who have had to sort things out.”

Both Ms Milton and the FE commissioner, Richard Atkins [pictured above], have said they expect the number of colleges that actually go bust will be very small.

“Of course I don’t expect large numbers of colleges to become insolvent,” Ms Milton wrote in her monthly FE Week column last week.

“I know that some colleges do face challenges and it is vital that their boards are able to take decisive action and provide effective leadership to help improve matters.”

Appealing to college boards directly, she added: “If you think you’re heading into financial difficulties, I’d encourage you to tell us early and we can talk about what kind of support might be available.”

Mr Atkins has previously told FE Week he expected that he and his team would be called in to try to find a solution for a college in danger of going insolvent.

A DfE spokesperson said it would be publishing guidance for governors ahead of the insolvency regime taking effect.

“The Education and Skills Funding Agency and the FE commissioner will continue to play a role in supporting colleges with their financial health and resilience,” he said.

A quarter of apprenticeship providers that have received early-monitoring visits from Ofsted so far have been rated as making ‘insufficient progress’.

The inspectorate has published 90 of its new early-monitoring visit reports since they began in March this year, and 22 of these have been found to be ‘insufficient’ in at least one category.

Of the 20,298 apprentices in providers assessed under the new visits, 4,914 (24 per cent) are receiving training from providers that have been found to be ‘insufficient’ in one or more category.

In August, the Education and Skills Funding Agency confirmed that any new apprenticeship provider which Ofsted deemed to be making ‘insufficient’ progress would be barred from taking on new apprentices, either directly or through subcontracting arrangements.

The ban will continue until the provider receives a full inspection, which should take place within a year, and has been awarded at least a grade three for its apprenticeship provision.

The ESFA can overrule this guidance only if it identifies an “exceptional extenuating circumstance”.

Providers are rated on whether they are meeting the requirements of apprenticeship provision, and the quality of their training and safeguarding, with some also graded on their adult-education provision. There are three possible results: insufficient progress, reasonable progress or significant progress.

 

Fourteen of the 90 reports published so far have included at least one ‘significant’ rating, accounting for 3,415 learners (16 per cent). Just three providers have received the highest possible grade of ‘significant progress’ in every category – the National Logistics Academy, WhiteHat Group and Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace – accounting for only 415 learners.

 In comparison, six have received the lowest possible grade, accounting for 1,110 learners. Premier People Solutions, Develop-U, Construction Gateway, NC Training, Care Training Solutions and Key6 Group have all been rated as making ‘insufficient progress’ in every category.

 So far, the ESFA has held true to its word and enforced a ban on all 20 providers which received at least one ‘insufficient’ rating in reports published up until October 25.

Two providers have been rated ‘insufficient’ since October 25, BPP University and Premier People Solutions.

Skills minister Anne Milton exclusively revealed to FE Week that the ESFA had decided to terminate its levy contract with Premier after the damning inspection report revealed unsafe recruitment practices for teachers who subsequently trained apprentices in government departments.

This means Premier will be removed from the register of apprenticeship providers in December.

However, the fate of BPP University, part of the global BPP Professional Education Group, is still unclear.

Even if BPP University is banned, the BPP group appears on RoATP another three times – as BPP Holdings, BPP Professional Education and BPP Actuarial Education – and none of these companies would be affected by a ban.

Any ban from Ofsted would also not include its level six and seven apprenticeship provision, which falls under the remit of the Office for Students. A spokesperson for OfS said it was “aware of the issue” and working with Ofsted and the Department for Education to address it.

Ofsted has received £5.4 million in government funding to carry out its early-monitoring visits of all new apprenticeship providers, which are thought to number as many as 1,200.

Learner numbers were not available for three providers: Moy Park, University of Suffolk and Sporting Futures Training (UK).

The Sixth Form Colleges Association is urging the government to keep the option for its members to convert to academy status open indefinitely, as the “arbitrary” deadline for doing so fast approaches.

Becoming an academy, and in doing so enjoying the luxury of not paying VAT, has been a possibility for nearly all SFCs since former chancellor George Osborne changed the rules in November 2015.

However, the window of opportunity closes in March when the £726 million restructuring facility – a fund designed to help colleges implement area review changes – ends and reverts back to the Treasury.

None of this was explored at the time when the government opened up the academy option to colleges

Bill Watkin, the chief executive of the SFCA, said this “cannot be right” and there is no “logical reason for rejecting colleges after an arbitrary date”.

“The government must continue to support those colleges that wish to academise after March – after all, some, such as the Catholic colleges, have not yet been free to adopt academy status because of a technical barrier that is no fault of theirs,” he told FE Week.

“The restructuring facility has not been deployed as much as was originally envisaged and should be extended.”

Guidance on applying to become an academy for SFCs, updated in January 2017, confirms that the option is “linked to the area review process”.

It adds, however, that the government will “consider in the light of experience from the area reviews whether further opportunities to apply should be available once the reviews are complete.

“But this opportunity does not exist at the moment, and colleges which wish to submit an application will need to do so as part of the relevant area review.”

When asked whether the Department for Education has made a decision on allowing SFCs to academise beyond March 2019, a spokesperson would only tell FE Week that the option is being looked at and more information would be available in due course.

Becoming an academy means SFCs no longer have to pay VAT – letting them off an average annual bill of £385,000.

The first to convert was Hereford SFC in March last year. Nineteen have since followed suit, leaving 62 designated SFCs. Three of these are, however, in the process of converting.

In an update from the ESFA about the restructuring facility last month, it was revealed that 30 applications to the fund have been made from 31 sixth form colleges “expressing plans to convert to academy status”, but the “majority have not been allocated any funding to support this conversion”.

A group of 14 which are Catholic-run have been completely prevented from converting due to their religious character, which would not be maintained under current government rules.

If they converted, they would lose protections in areas of curriculum, acts of worship and governance. The SFCA and Catholic Education Service have been trying to get the government to add a clause to the education bill to rectify this, but the DfE has not obliged.

Mr Watkin said “some more colleges are still interested in the possibility of converting” but academisation has “not always been an easy process”.

“The ESFA and the Transaction Unit [which administers the restructuring facility] have had to come up with solutions to unanticipated conversion problems; regional schools commissioners have had to adapt to a new and unfamiliar landscape; and pioneering colleges have had to navigate an untrodden path and overcome some significant snagging issues,” he told FE Week.

“RSCs and the national schools commissioner were not always on the same page and there were regional variations; some gave permission to colleges to become single academy trusts, some insisted on a multi academy trust (even if an unpopulated MAT); some then insisted on a populated MAT and now some are saying that there are already too many MATs in the region, they don’t want another one, so a college must join an existing MAT.”

He added: “None of this was explored at the time when the government opened up the academy option to colleges as a way of offering VAT relief.”